The Lord My Keeper: My Litany of Praise

My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth…

The Lord is your keeper; the Lord is your shade on your right hand. -Psalm 121:2, 5 (ESV).

What an incomprehensible thought:

God who made heaven and earth,

Wo lifted the mountains above the valleys,

Who bounded the waves of the seas,

Who strung the stars in galaxies unnumbered,

Who made the dry land and peopled the forests with animals,

Who created mankind and gave him dominion and power over the Creation,

Even He, the Maker of all, even He is my keeper,

My shade upon my right hand,

My Companion, my Savior, my Friend.

He, Creator, Lord, is never too busy to hear me when I call,

Never too remote to be concerned for my welfare,

Never too busy to radiate care and concern

In infinite ways beyond numbering.

How can my heart respond on this another day

He has given me in which to rejoice and be glad?

With gratitude:

Thanksgiving wells up like an overflowing fountain.

His provision eradicates all thirst and want.

With gladness:

Joy unspeakable and full of glory fills my cup

And praise wells up in a soul overflowing.

With awe:

He is Almighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

He neither slumbers nor sleeps and is near to observe

My going out and my coming in, from henceforth, forevermore!

The Maker of heaven and earth is my helper.

He is my keeper and guides me with His mighty hand. Selah!

-Ethelene Dyer Jones 07.31.2016

Trusting God to Work Things Together for Good

“And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose.” -Romans 8:28 (KJV).

Romans 8:28 has long been one of my “life verses,” one I memorized long ago and return to again and again to seek to live by. We often misunderstand the verse, thinking that it somehow shows that God puts immunity around believers to protect them from the perplexities, troubles and disappointments of life. That is not the promise of the verse. The promise is God’s ability to work things out for good for those of us who love and trust Him. God doesn’t promise to divert troubles but to lead the believer through them, not to have us avoid sorrow or pain, but to give grace to bear whatever comes.

What is my part in God’s plan? I accept and trust the daily grace God gives me for life’s journey. Has the Lord ever failed? No. But I, in my failure to seek and acknowledge God, fail to lay claim to His promises and live by them. My part in God’s plan for “all things to work together for good” is for my soul to get in touch with God’s greatness and mercy, to claim His promises and to believe, know and act upon the truth that “all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are called according to His purpose.”

On July 23, 2016, I participated in a thrilling event, the 70^th “Founders’ Day” program of Truett McConnell College, now Truett McConnell University. Those gathered recalled the history of the college in the mountains established on Christian principles and for the purpose of educating young men and young women in a Christian environment. The logo of a hand holding a flame with the Latin phrase, “veritas liberat,” (truth liberates) has been the college’s motto since the beginning from that Founder’s Day program July 23, 1946. Currently, the inspiring challenge added by the current president, Dr. Emir Caner is “From the first verse to the last tribe,” calling to mind the emphasis that we as Christians are all missionaries as we share the love of God in the context of daily living and reach out to even the “last tribe” who has not yet heard of God’s plan to bring all peoples everywhere to His abundant grace, mercy and forgiveness. God does, indeed (as this sonnet I wrote affirms) work all things together for good:

In God’s Master Plan

We often question, Lord, the ways of life,

The pains we bear, our toils and strife.

When troubles come we wonder why.

We’re not immune. We sometimes cry.

But then like a shining ray of hope

Above our questions Your Spirit spoke

Assuring us that in Your great plan

The best will come to believing man.

Here we see dimly as through a dark glass;

We cannot know what will come to pass.

What we do not know we accept by grace,

For answers come when we seek Your face.

For now, we hold to Your steadfast hand

To lead us on the journey You have planned.

Prayer: Lord, I know You are working things together for good. Therein lies “the peace that passes all understanding” Paul wrote about in Philippians 4:7. Thank You, Lord. -Ethelene Dyer Jones. 07.24.2016.

Some Guards Against Overextending Oneself

“To this end we always pray for you, that our God may make you worthy of His calling and may fulfill every resolve for good and every work of faith by His power, so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in Him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ. -2 Thessalonians 1:11-12 (ESV).

For persons with ambition to work well and to accomplish as much as possible, overextending oftentimes has to be dealt with, and planning and prioritizing must occur. Paul prayed for the Christians at Thessalonica that “God may make you worthy of His calling” and to “fulfill every resolve for good and every work of faith by His power.”

The Rev. Phillips Brooks, noted American minister and writer, stated, “Do not pray for easy lives. Pray to be stronger men! Do not pray for tasks equal to your powers. Pray for powers equal to your tasks.”

In my work, I often had to be what we term a multi-tasked person. I learned how to meet the demands of a busy high school media center. The job required dealing with immediate and unexpected challenges as well as the planned, long-range management of a resource center, teaching and leading, organization and keeping a schedule. And permeating the whole process was assisting students to find answers as they pursued knowledge and learned to be independent researchers to find their own answers to learning challenges.

When faced with multiple tasks, the Christine should not pray for easier or fewer tasks but pray instead for the knowledge and strength to do what needs to be done. Paul also prayed that the work might be done to the glory of the Lord Jesus. If attitude and priorities are right, and the Christian has accepted the challenge—not of a smaller work but for a larger strength and ability with which to accomplishan it—then work can proceed willingly and with determination.

I leaned this motto in Vacation Bible School when I was a pre-teenager: “I will do the best I can with what I have, where I am, for Jesus’ sake today.” The sound advice of this motto, and my strong faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, have served me well at times of overextension when I need to pause, take stock, release the less-necessary, and work hard to finish priorities. I know assuredly that if I pray for guidance and strength and seek to glorify the Lord (not myself) in my work, then “my heart found (and can find) pleasure in all my toil” (Ecclesiastes 2:10).

Prayer: Today, Lord, I have much work to do. Show me priorities and possibilities. Strengthen and equip me for the tasks. May I not feel guilty when brief pauses and a little “time out” are necessary for rest. May You be glorified as I work “as unto the Lord.” Amen. - Ethelene Dyer Jones 07.17.2016

Walk Worthily of Your Calling

“I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility, and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call—one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, Who is over all, and through all and in all.” -Ephesians 4:1-6 (ESV)

Paul the Apostle wrote to the Christians at Ephesus (Ephesians 4:1-6), to those at Colosse (see Colossians 1:10), and to those at Thessalonica (see 2 Thessalonians 2:12) to walk worthily of the calling of a Christian. Earlier, as John the Baptist preached in the wilderness prior to his introduction of the Lord Jesus Christ, he admonished that persons should “bring forth fruits worthy of repentance” (see John 3:8-9). And have we not aspired to live by the Bible’s instruction to show a decided difference in our lives by the way we live following our acceptance of the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord? There’s a gospel hymn that reminds us of this difference in a Christian’s walk (or manner of life):

“And they’ll know we are Christians by our love, by our love;

Yes, they’ll know we are Christians by our love.”

We often refer to manner of life as a person’s “walk.” In 1 John 2:6 we are admonished to walk as Jesus walked: “Whoever says he abides in Him ought to walk in the same way as He walked.” Indeed, that is a worthy goal—one nigh impossible to achieve in this life but one to which we should constantly strive, with the help of the Holy Spirit, our guide and stay. We have a perfect example—the life and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. “I am the way, the truth and the life,” He said (John 14:6). Our daily aim should be to walk in a manner that emulates Christ. There is a reminder bracelet that Christian youth sometimes wear with the initials “WWJD” inscribed on it. The bracelet is a reminder to ask, “What Would Jesus Do”? In teaching Christians to walk worthy of their calling, Paul lists some of the characteristics in our focal passage for today we know as the fruit of the Spirit: humility, gentleness, patience, forbearance, love. And within the fellowship of believers we will seek to maintain unity. Where discord enters, confusion abounds. Neither of these is a characteristic of a spirit of unity.

Paul ends this teaching from Ephesians of walking worthily of our calling by giving some strong doctrine: “one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all.” The Christian comes into the walk with Christ through grace, the unmerited favor of God. Once that relationship is established, we then have a responsibility to “walk worthy” of our calling.

Today is a good day to examine my walk with the Lord.

Is Jesus beside me as I go?

Within me as I make decisions?

Is He my constant companion in the every-dayness of my life?

Do I talk to Him as an available friend and counselor?

Do I study the Bible consistently and apply its truths to my life?

Does my relationship with the Lord permeate all I do?

Do I ask, “What would Jesus do?” -Ethelene Dyer Jones 07.10.2016

Revive Us Again!

“Will you not revive us again, that your people may rejoice in you? Show us your steadfast love, O Lord, and grant us your salvation. -Psalm 85:6-7 (ESV). “You who seek God, let your hearts revive.” -Psalm 69:32b (ESV). “For thus says the One who is high and lifted up, who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: ‘I dwell in the high and holy place, and also with him who is of a contrite and lowly spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly, and to revive the heart of the contrite.” -Isaiah 57:15 (ESV).

Probably many of you who read this can remember the times, especially in the summertime, when your church had a week (or more) of revival. In the mountains of north Georgia where I grew up, we sometimes called it not only “revival meeting” but “protracted” meeting. The latter term meant that the meeting was set for a certain week. Ours at Choestoe Baptist Church was beginning with the second Sunday in July and running through that week. If this week, which our native poet, Byron Herbert Reece in his poem “Choestoe” called “protracted meeting,” (“God’s high festival), was going well at the end of one week, with the Spirit of the Lord moving upon the hearts of the people, the meeting would be “protracted,” or continuing on for more days as the preaching and singing continued and the results were many people “getting right with the Lord,” confessing sins, and coming to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

I became a Christian in just such a week of revival meeting, on a Tuesday night, in the second week of July, 1939. I remember the occasion well, and how happy I was to confess the Lord as my Savior. A month later, on the second Sunday in August, after the converts had been taught by our pastor the responsibilities and doctrines of church membership, and were considered to be truly converted, the baptismal service was held on the second Sunday afternoon of August, 1939. Twenty-three new converts lined up to go into the cold waters of Nottely River to be baptized. “Upon your profession of faith,” our pastor said, “I baptize you my brother/sister (as he came to each individually), in the name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. You are buried with Christ in baptism; raised to walk in newness of life with Him.”

Now revivals are not held as regularly and as often as they were in those good days in the country. We put major emphasis upon going to church, morning and night, all week. We “had the preachers” (or pastor and the visiting evangelist) in our home for a bountiful meal. The front porch after the meal at noon were places where we heard the preachers expound upon passages of Scripture and teach us in a more casual setting than at church. Indeed, I could go with our local poet’s evaluation of such a high and holy week: It was “God’s high festival—protracted meeting.” Crops were laid by. It was time to get hearts and lives aligned with God’s purposes. It was revival meeting time! Reread our focal scriptures for today. These were fulfilled in our midst in those precious weeks in summer. God did, indeed, “revive us again,” his people did “rejoice in Him,” and we sought God and our hearts were filled with joy.

Here are some famous quotations about revival from two renowned evangelists of the past. Charles H. Spurgeon (1832-1892) wrote: “A genuine revival without joy in the Lord is as impossible as spring without flowers or dawn without light.” He also wrote: “If we want revival, we must revive our reverence for the Word of God.” And again he wrote: “Revival begins by Christians getting right first and then it spills over into the world.” Dwight L. Moody, American evangelist, wrote: “Before we pray that God would fill us, I believe we ought to pray that He would empty us.” 

 

Prayer: “O Lord, will you not revive us again that your people might rejoice in You?” Amen! Now, can we not sing “Revive Us Again” with new and vigorous desire and prayer to have this spiritual renewal among us? - Ethelene Dyer Jones 07.03.2016

Memory Verse: Urging Believers to Attend Church

“Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful. And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching.” -Hebrews 10:23-25.

Maybe you’ve heard someone say, “I was brought up to go to church!” If so, listen to find out why. First, it is an admonition from the Word of God on how we should conduct the Christian life—with love for and faithfulness to the church. Jesus said that “upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it” (Matthew 16:18). Jesus was referring to the confession Peter made when he said, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God” (Matthew 16:16). To assemble ourselves together with other believers helps us affirm jointly that Christ is Lord. The church has no power to save us, but through the church we learn who Jesus is and come to accept Him as Savior and Lord.

In the focal passage from Hebrews we learn that the church has a mission to “stir up love and good works” among fellow believers. There we can help each other to understand the Word and in time together for study, prayer and worship, and then go forth to live out the love of Christ in our own lives, and to do good works. Christians strengthen and encourage each other. We also help as we are taught and then may become teachers ourselves.

I am glad that even as a child I loved to go to the house of the Lord. To be absent from the “assembling of ourselves together” was a felt loss in my week and on Sunday. In retrospect, I can see that this early love for going to Sunday School, worship services and mission meetings at my church was preparing me for future work the Lord had in mind for me to do. I never dreamed as a young child that one day God would want me to be the wife of a minister and assist in the teaching ministries of the churches he served and the mission work to which he was called.

Hebrews advises strongly: “Hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering,” and to “not forsake the assembling of ourselves together as is the manner of some.” This desire to be in the house of the Lord worshiping and studying should be a hunger of the soul. If that love for the church is no longer in your heart and practice, unless it is because of ill health or other necessary cause, I would say “beware!” A wise Christian leader taught me: “God does not move away from the believer unless first the believer strays from God.” There should be a strong desire to go into the house of the Lord. As we read in Psalm 122:1: “I was glad when they said unto me, ‘Let us go into the house of the Lord.’ “ If that joy is not with you, ask yourself “Why?” Seek God’s forgiveness and find a congregation of believers where you can experience the worship and fellowship the verses from Hebrews 10:23-25 teach, and the exuberance and praise that Psalm 122:1 radiates.

Dr. Vance Havner, a great minister of the gospel, wrote: “There is something wrong with our Christianity when we have to beg most of our crowd to come to church to hear about it.”

I love the words and music to the hymn, “Come All Christians, Be Committed.” Eva B. Lloyd wrote the words and James H. Wood adapted the tune “Beach Spring” from the Sacred Harp to go with her words on the same theme as we read in our focal passage for today.

“Come all Christians, be committed To the service of the Lord.

Make your lives for Him more fitted, Tune your hearts with one accord.

Come into His courts with gladness, Each His sacred vows renew,

Turn away from sin and sadness, Be transformed with life anew.” Amen!

-Ethelene Dyer Jones 06.26.2016

Memory Verse: Study

“Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.” -2 Timothy 2:15 (KJV).

Today is Father’s Day, a day when we honor fathers. My father encouraged me to study and do well. I remember his encouragement and admonitions with gratitude.

In the “memory verse” emphasis I am now writing about in these devotionals, I am selecting one by one (and day by day) those that I have memorized over the years. I am also using suggestions from the book by Robert J. Morgan entitled 100 Bible Verses Everyone Should Know by Heart (Nashville: B&H Publishers, 2010). Today’s selected verse, 2 Timothy 2:15, is not one in Dr. Morgan’s list of 100. I was encouraged early in my life, when I was in first grade at Choestoe School, to memorize this verse. It was not “against the law” then for school children to memorize Bible verses, or for the class to have the Pledge of Allegiance, a Bible reading and the Lord’s Prayer to begin public school in those days. My first grade teacher was Mrs. Mert Shuler Collins. She was also my teacher at Sunday School. She encouraged us at both places—school and Sunday School—to memorize Bible verses. As incentive, she had a chart with her pupils’ names at both locations, and would place a shining star by each child’s name who could repeat the memorized verse to her correctly. Her method may not be recommended by modern-day educators for the feelings of lack of accomplishment it might engender in those who do not earn the stars. But for me, both what this verse from 2 Timothy 2:15 teaches, and the very fact that it was safely lodged in my memory to give me more incentive to study set me on a course to work hard in all my lessons and be on that special road we called “Achievement in Studies.” And my father and mother at home encouraged and helped me to do likewise.

Paul, Timothy’s teacher, and the one who called Timothy his “son in the gospel,” knew that Timothy needed to study well the law and the prophets, but also Paul’s own letters that gave much of the new Way of Jesus as Lord that Paul preached and that he commissioned Timothy to teach and to preach to the churches he sent the younger Timothy to encourage. This verse, although meant to encourage study of the scriptures, can also apply to whatever challenges we have to study that which is good and beneficial. We study in school at first to grow proficient in reading, writing and arithmetic. Then we add sciences and the social studies, more erudite studies in specific fields we want to pursue which will help us in our careers. But the same principle Paul gave to Timothy still prevails, regardless of what pursuit of knowledge we follow, so long as the study is honorable and beneficial. The Amplified Bible gives additional insight into 2 Timothy 2:15: “Study and be eager and do your utmost to present yourself to God approved (tested by trial), a workman who has no cause to be ashamed, correctly analyzing and accurately dividing—rightly handling and skillfully teaching—the Word of Truth.” I take the advice in this verse very literally when I teach a Sunday School class or lead a group in Bible Study. Being a teacher by profession, I sought to apply the principles of this verse in the classroom. The teacher must first study hard and diligently before teaching. A teacher should not be afraid to say: “I don’t know the answer to your question. But keep it in mind. Together we will seek to find the answer.” Eugene Peterson in his modern-language The Message Bible renders 2 Timothy 2:15 this way: “Concentrate on doing your best for God, work you won’t be ashamed of, laying out the truth plain and simple.”’ His translation further admonishes: “Words are not mere words, you know. If they’re not backed by a godly life, they accumulate as poison in the soul” (v. 16). -Ethelene Dyer Jones 06.19.2016